About: I love my two sons, I enjoy my 89' Jeep, skateboarding, wood working, gardening, upcycling and creating a comfortable enviroment in which I live. I am constantly inspired by the creativity on this website a...
More About jawasan »

This year I decided to make cards for all our friends and family. Now of course I not a scrooge, no way, no "humbug" in this house. This was all in fun, a little bit of dark humor if you will...and my "peeps" know how my mind works, they are accustomed to this!

I love the holidays, most people do.....but sometimes in the middle of all that shopping, standing in the long lines, keeping the children in behaved, holiday traffic, etc....you just wanna step back and pull your hair out!! By the end of those kinda' days we all have a little bit of "HUMBUG" in us.....hence the idea for my holiday cards this year. :)

The idea was to have humorous, yet naughty and devious situations that the snowmen would doing...or something happening to them...for instance - a snowman melting his head with a blowdryer....or a little dog "doing his business" at the base of a snowman....or Santa Clause kidnapped by a snowman....you get the idea.

Keep in mind this is not the typical instructable which involves measuring, cutting, nailing together, wrenching, etc... Your end result doesn't have to look like mine, use your creativity and let it flow. Everyone is an artist in their own way so have fun with it and good luck.

Step 1: Supplies & Sketching....

First we will gather some supplies....

* White paper or Heavy card stock

* Pencils

* Eraser

* Black Ink pen

* Coloring Pencils

...also a printer/ copy machine is desirable, but not neccessary.

Now we draw...

Ok take the paper, or card stock, fold it in half to make the card. Figure out where you want your drawing to be placed on the panel that would be the front of the card.

I started by sketching out the snowman's body near the middle, 3 circles, nothing special. Branches for the arms were made by a couple crookedly drawn lines....they're branches, no need to be perfect.

Next sketch the carrot shape for the nose, then some round-ish shapes for the coal eyes and mouth, and so on....you can give him a stocking hat, an old fashion top hat, whatever you like. You can always erase your sketch and begin new, no worries.

Step 2: Ink and Color....

Ok, so now the snowman is sketched. No needs for lots of detail here, keep it simple. To give the impression of snowflakes I just made little swirls and to add that "humbug" feeling I made a string of broken Christmas lights above him...
So that should about do it for the pencil...stretch your fingers out!

At this point it's time to pick up the mighty pen and begin drawing your lines in permanent.

This isn't overly difficult. Permanent yes, difficult no. Take you time and follow the sketch lines you feel completes the drawing well. Do not sketch with the pen, now is the time to flow.
After drawing all the lines in with ink it is time to let the ink dry for a few minutes, you will be using the eraser next....I am left handed so I have to draw a certain angle so as not to get ink all over my drawing hand thus smearing the ink....if you are left handed you know exactly what I am talking about!

Once the ink is dry come back and erase all the pencil lines. If you do not let your ink dry for a few minutes and try to erase the pencil you will smudge and smear the ink! Not good!

I kept the color real simple, just the basics. Blue, red, yellow, brown, green...and of course orange for his carrot nose. :)

There is no need to color everything COMPLETELY in solid...you can if you'd like, but there is no need. In this case I just went around the edges with color and shaded the line inward, lightening up pressure as I went....just enough to give it shape and depth. Leave "white" areas to give it highlight. You'll get the hang of it.

Last stop coming up!!! Hang in there.

Step 3: Ok, What Should Your Card Say?

Hmmmm....let's see?

In this case "Bah Humbug" is my theme, so naturally that is what I have on the front panel. You can write "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", "Seasons Greetings", whatever you choose. It's is your creation, your family that reads it, so have fun.

Once the lettering is complete go back and make sure nothing needs to be touched up, maybe a line you didn't erase? Make sure the card is folded properly, your greeting is written inside, place it in an envelope and mail it out!!

YOU'RE FINISHED!! CONGRATULATIONS on your hand drawn Christmas card.

Hold on! I went a step further...

This is where the printer/scanner comes in handy. I made about a dozen or more of these cards by hand and it has gotten to be too much work! Yes everyone in the family wil have wanted a hand drawn card, but there isn't enough time!!

So I scanned all the original drawings in to the computer and from here I was able to pick a Christmas font I felt fit the drawing. I purchased some lightweight card stock from Office Depot and then printed out the cards! Oh my this was so much easier and didn't take a lot of ink in the printer like I thought it would!

Shown are the different cards I made for my friends and family this year....yes yes, they are a bit on the dark side, but I still think they are funny! Enjoy and have a great holiday season.